iPhone X long-term review: 10 months later, it is as smooth as ever

The iPhone X first went on sale in India on November 3 and we take a look at how well the device has aged after 10 months.

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Sanket Vijayasarathy

New Delhi

September 3, 2018

UPDATED: September 4, 2018 08:54 IST

Apple has certainly had a pretty eventful year. From releasing a very buggy iOS 11 to launching the redesigned iPhone X, from announcing that it deliberately throttled performance of older iPhones to hitting the trillion-dollar valuation. Apple has seen a few ups and downs in the last 12 months. The iPhone X is probably one of the few ups for the company this past year, and for those who managed to buy it as well. It marks the start of a new generation of iPhones to come and if the iPhone X is anything to go by, the future looks pretty great.

The iPhone X first went on sale in India on November 3 with a price tag that left even die-hard Apple fans gasping for air. Understandably, many would have waited months until there was some hope for price cuts or discounts, but thanks to a few custom duty hikes, the iPhone X remains one of the most expensive phones out there. With three new iPhones expected to launch on September 12, the question arises whether the iPhone X is worth investing in today.

Now, if you're going to spend close to a lakh of rupees on a phone, you would expect that it lasts you a few years at least. The iPhone X is exactly 10 months old since it first got into the hands of consumers, and we at India Today Tech have spent just as long with the device to tell you whether it has aged well or not, and whether it is worth your hard-earned money.

A little rough around the edges, but still stunning as ever

The iPhone X is a gorgeous piece of machinery, so much so that it stole the spotlight away from the iPhone 8 and 8 Plus during the event. It's understandable because we have been used to similar-looking iPhones for a few years now, and then along comes the X with its all-glass body that curves and seamlessly meets a very shiny stainless-steel frame, and a display that stretches to every corner of the phone, signalling a completely new direction for the company. The iPhone X is extremely clean and attractive and you can tell a lot of effort has gone into making this phone look unreal.

10 months later, the steel frame now sees a lot of scratches and wear, more so than what you would find on aluminum phones. The degree of these scratches will vary depending on whether you have a cover on or not. The rest of the phone does hold up pretty well with with just a few minor scrapes on the glass on the front and back. This is without any screen protection, but I'm sure most iPhone X users won't be so risky and will have a cover on from day 1.

The iPhone X isn't a tall phone and I like that because it has a great in-hand feel to it. It's compact and yet it delivers a good amount of display. Most tasks can be accomplished with just one hand and the buttons are quite easy to reach as well. I did notice, however, the rubber gasket around the SIM tray start to come loose, making it difficult to push the tray completely inside. It shouldn't be an issue if you're not planning to switch between SIM cards too often.

A notch that launched a thousand notches

The iPhone X has one of the biggest notches on a phone right now. Since the iPhone X, we have seen a number of Android OEMs adopt similar looking notches for their phones, only varying in size. I want to say that the notch is something that one gets used to after a while. For the most part, your eyes will adjust and all you'll see is that stunning OLED display on the iPhone X. But Apple has always lived by the philosophy that if you don't like something, get used to it, and that's exactly what it wants you to do with the notch. The forehead will continue to intrude any video or game that you play in landscape and Apple is not going to make any special accommodations for it.

A lot of Android phones with notches turn the status bar completely black so that videos and games in landscape are letterboxed. It actually makes getting used to the notch a lot easier, which is why I liked my experience with the OnePlus 6 and Nokia 6.1 Plus. That being said, the display on the iPhone X is absolutely stunning and while I won't be using it too much to watch videos, I will admire it while performing every other task. The 5.8-inch display is bright, vibrant and 3D-like with colours that pop. It's a display that you won't get tired of even months after using it, and that's kind of what you want in a phone.

Great performance, made even better with iOS 12

The A11 Bionic chip is an absolute beast and has consistently delivered on speed and performance for the iPhone X. Even after 10 months, the device is as smooth as ever. You are unlikely to find any lag or stuttering as you go about your day running apps and multitasking. Even with 3GB of RAM, the phone works flawlessly. Any issue you may face is perhaps on the software side of things with a very clunky iOS 11 running inside. But pretty soon, iOS 12 stable version will be out, and based on my time with the public beta versions so far, I am very optimistic about the performance.

Apple knows it made a pretty unstable iOS 11, which is why iOS 12 is all about performance, speed and reliability. It's perhaps one of Apple's most stable updates to date. During my time with the open beta, I saw a noticeable improvement in speed and performance and it's not just with the X. I noticed a lot of improvements on the iPhone 7 and iPad Air 2 as well. Apple says that apps open twice as fast as before and camera opens from the locked screen around 70 per cent faster. While I can't verify the speed to the dot, I can say that Apple's claims are true for the most part.

Battery has aged quite well

iPhones are notorious for delivering underwhelming battery life, especially the non-Plus models. And things did not help when Apple confessed it added a feature that would downgrade the performance of older iPhones to protect their battery. Batteries do age and a year-old iPhone will not deliver as much juice as a fresh one, and things will get worse if you add more years to it. Apple added a Battery Health feature for consumers to get an idea of how well or poorly their iPhone's battery is aging. Our iPhone X unit showed a 98 per cent battery health status after 10 months of usage, which is pretty impressive. The battery indeed holds up well and you'll get the same amount of juice out of it as you did on the first day.

Now, iOS 11 really did a number on the battery and we noticed that the iPhone X struggled to get through the day. However, after downloading the iOS 12 public beta, I was surprised by how well the battery life improved. The iPhone X now lasts a full day and maybe more on average usage, which is better than what we encountered prior to iOS 12.

Cameras: Still up there with the best

Since the iPhone X came out, we have seen some pretty incredible camera phones likes the Huawei P20 Pro with its triple camera setup and the Galaxy S9+ with its dual aperture, even the Galaxy Note 9 for that matter. The iPhone X is no long at the top of the charts in DxOMark rankings, but the cameras on it are still right up there with the best of them even today. Apple's iPhones have some of the best, true-to-life cameras you can find. The 12-megapixel dual cameras on the back offer some crisp, detailed photos with colours that are close to what your eyes see. The little bit of over saturation that you find is thanks to the OLED display, but what you largely get are vivid colours with great dynamic range and balanced exposure.

IMAGE SAMPLES

The wide-angle lens comes with a wide f/1.8 aperture which means you should get better low-light photography than any previous iPhone, but don't expect the kind of low-light shot that the galaxy S9 and Note 9 manage with their dual aperture lens. Portrait shots look good in daylight with clear distinction between the subject and background thanks to an improved secondary telephoto lens. It also surprisingly does well in low-light as well and thanks to dual optical stabilisation on board, photos and videos will often come out sharp and blur-free. The 7MP TrueDepth front camera captures some great selfies in good light and also gets a portrait mode which is actually pretty good.

Before I forget

-- If you bought the iPhone X for its much-touted Animoji feature, I have to say that it is kind of forgotten after a few months. The feature is quite novel and I used it a lot initially, mostly to make silly faces as various characters. But the problem is that Animojis can only be created by those with an iPhone X. And because buying this phone is so hard in India, I can't really have Animoji conversations with anyone I know.

-- Face ID is Apple's new and only biometric feature to access the phone. It makes use of all those sensors inside that big notch on the front. It's not the fastest way to unlock the phone and I do miss Touch ID even today, but I have gotten used to the feature by default. Face ID is pretty accurate and works even in darkness, but the time it takes to unlock the phone can still be pretty annoying at times.

-- With the home button gone, Apple wants you to get used to gesture navigation. It's something that takes a while getting used to, but once you do it's hard to go back to the old ways of things. Swiping up from the bottom to go to the home screen, swipe right from the bottom of the screen to switch between apps and so on. All of this becomes natural after a while and is the logical step for bezel-less phones. I have seen a few Android phones make use of the gestures, but the X by far has the best animations while doing it.

iPhone X: 10 months later

I have to say the iPhone X has held up really well after 10 months. The design is still absolutely stunning despite a slew of notched Android phones out there now. Apart from a few scratches around the frame, the body of the phone will look just fine, assuming you have a cover on at all times. Performance of the iPhone X is as fast and slick as ever, and I feel things have only improved with iOS 12. Apple has really improved the battery of the device and close to a year later it is still aging quite well, delivering a good full day worth of life between charges.

The notch is something you may get used to with time, but I still won't be using the X to watch videos or play games simply because there's way too much interference. Unfortunately, the price of the device is still pretty much the same if not a little more expensive than before. And with a new cheaper LCD iPhone expected on September 12, I wouldn't recommend buying the iPhone X right now. But for those who already own one, I will say that it looks like the device will stick around for a few more years to come.

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